China closing 150 gold mines

Image of Ao, a giant turtle in Chinese mythology, outside Zhaoyuan, China's official city of gold, located in Shandong province.

China's official news agency Xinhua is reporting that the country is set increase annual gold output to 500 tonnes by the end of the decade from around 450 tonnes currently.

China overtook South Africa as the number one miner of the metal in 2007. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) expects gold output to grow by an average 3% annually through 2020.

Last year output rose less than 1% to 453.5 tonnes according to the ministry:

[The MIIT] aims to consolidate and upgrade the industry by reducing the number of gold miners to around 450 from more than 600, and shutting down 40 tonnes of outdated production capacity by the end of 2020.

Last year, global gold demand increased 2% to 4,309 tonnes, the highest since 2013, but the improvement was mainly on the back of investment purchases in the West as physical demand from top consumers China and India fell data from the World Gold Council showed.